Kevin Costner Is No Longer The Slavemaster In Tarantino's 'Django Unchained'

He may have walked away due to his commitment to a History Channel mini-series. Someone slap his agent.

In news that is both unfortunate and perplexing, Kevin Costner has passed on the Django Unchained role due to scheduling conflicts. THis is unfortunate because a) he seemed to be an inspired choice for the role and would have taken it in an interesting direction, and b) because it could have given his career a renaissance a la Travolta in Pulp Fiction. It's perplexing because he's been attached to the role for about two months, so it seems a little late in the game to cite scheduling conflicts.

So, with filming to begin in November, the hunt is on for a new mean slave-trainer. I don't know why, but Donald Sutherland really jumps out at me for this role. So, QT, if you're reading this (and I'm absolutely positive you are), try Sutherland. Donald or Kiefer, actually. Or maybe a skinny John C. Reilly. There was a time when he did drama, you know.